Corazón de Chileno – Educational robotics as a state policy!

Last Friday, September 7th, the team of Robótica Educativa FRC “Corazón de Chileno®” met for a talk with the Chilean Minister of Economy, Pablo Longueira Montes who committed himself to implementing the “Robótica Educativa” (Educational Robotics) as a state policy.

This is due to the high value of this methodology for boosting innovation and national entrepreneurship within educational establishments, even more now with the upcoming year of innovation established by the government, as stated by President Piñera.

“The year 2013 will be the great year of innovation in Chile and we are preparing for it so that our country can take a huge step forward in innovation and entrepreneurship”,

says President Piñera.

The team of “Corazón de Chileno®” believes that the decision of the authorities to implement “Robótica Educativa” as state policy is a great success for the progress of education in Chile, because its benefits, ranging from hard skills such as programming, physics, mathematics, mechanics and electronics to the development of soft skills like teamwork, leadership, creative thinking, effective communication etc.

Mentor José Ignacio Fernández says:

“When working with college students who are able to design, construct and program a robot playing tennis against a double olympic gold medallist like Nicolás Massú, or a robot that is able to play basketball with an effectiveness of its shots exceeding 90%, you know that they are a new generation of engineers, scientists and technocrats who can overcome any challenge they might be confronted with.

Now we just have to be able to expand the knowledge of all those young engineers.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW55XXGAvLE[/youtube]

About Corazon de Chileno®

The team consists of about 30 students from more than 20 different schools from different regions of the country. Together they make up the “Chilean robotic community”.

Since the year 2008, Corazón De Chileno® has been participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition, an international competition organized by the foundation FIRST, standing for “for inspiration and recognition of science and technology”.

The performance of the team has been very well evaluated by the international community, being awarded four times! (Congrats, guys!!)

In 2008, the team received the award “Rookie Inspiration Award” in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Then, in 2011, they received the prize “The Judges Award” in Los Angeles, California and finally, in March 2012, the team received the prestigious “Team Spirit Award” and the “Woodie Flowers Finalist Award” in Los Angeles, California.

Additionally, Corazón de Chileno® FRC has been realizing a series of workshops, such as
“Mi Primer Robot” (“My first robot”) in which children aged 5-12 develop creativity and learn basic concepts of electronics, entertainment for instance, in which also the parents may be involved.